complete verse (Exodus 5:11)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 5:11:

  • Kupsabiny: “But be looking for your own from wherever you would get it. Although it is like that, do not make the bricks lesser than the usual.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You bring the straw from where you can get them. But as for the work, it must not be less.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “You (plur.) now are-to-look-for/search-for this everywhere/[lit. where ever], but you (plur.) are- still -to-make particularly the same number of bricks.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Bariai: “You (pl.) alone will go gather your dry weeds in whichever area you find it. But you must make many hard stones similarly as all the time.’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
  • Opo: “you go harvest and bring back grass by themselves. And I not work your down will decrease!›»” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
  • English: “So you yourselves must go and get straw wherever you can find it. But you must still keep working to make the same number of bricks as before.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

2nd person pronoun with low register (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.

In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also first person pronoun with low register and third person pronoun with low register.

Translation commentary on Exod 5:11

Go yourselves is literally “You, you go,” in the sense of “You are the ones who must go.” These are still the words of the king addressed to the Israelite workers through the mouths of the taskmasters and foremen (verse 10). Get your straw may be understood as “gather” (New American Bible) or “collect” (New Jerusalem Bible), as suggested in verse 12, but the word for get means to lay hold of, to acquire, without indicating where or how. Your straw means “the straw you will need for making the bricks.” Wherever you can find it does not suggest that it was hidden; it could be out in the fields, or on the threshing floors, or even where others had collected it.

But your work refers to the results of their labor, that is, to the number or quota of bricks they were forced to make. New Jerusalem Bible has “your output,” and Translator’s Old Testament has “the amount you produce.” Will not be lessened in the least therefore means “you must still make the same number of bricks” (Good News Translation). This seems to have been a daily quota. (See verse 14.) This implies that they would now have to work even harder and longer to meet the daily requirement. Another way of expressing this is “but you must still make as many bricks as before” (Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .